Coin holder



June 5, 1968 vosHlKb ISHIKAWA 3,

COIN HOLDER Filed Nov. 23. 1966 H64 FIG. 5

I t 161 g 161 @221 United States Patent 3,389,710 COIN HOLDER Yoshiko Ishikawa, 26 Umayahashi 3-chome, Sumida-ku, Tokyo, Japan Filed Nov. 23, 1966, Ser. No. 596,597 1 Claim. (Cl. 133-6) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A suspendible coin holder in the form of a tubular casing having a coin receiving plate slidable in each end and a coin guide element fixed on each end, a coil spring in the casing biasing each plate against its adjacent guide element, boss elements on the plate to align the coil spring on the guide element to prevent accidental coin removal, and a pivoted cover on one end of the casing to cover the adjacent guide element.

This invention is related to a coin holder, more particularly to an improved pendant type coin holder suspendible from a key holder and the like.

In everyday life, it is frequently necessary to make payment in small coins, and it is sometimes troublesome to take coins out of a coin holder kept in a pocket, especially when one makes payment while driving a car, for instance paying fees for the use of a toll road. To facilitate handling of coins in such cases, there have been used pendant type coin holders suspendible from a key holder and the like. In conventional coin holders, an outlet opening for coins is provided at the top end of the holder, and in order to take coins out of such holders, it is necessary to grasp the holder itself with one hand and to push coins upwards with the other hand. If one tries to do both the grasping and pushing with one hand, coins are apt to be slipped out of the hand. Thus, it is difficult for a driver to take out coins with one hand while holding a steering wheel with the other hand in the case of conventional coin holders.

Therefore, it is a principal object of the invention to obviate completely the aforementioned difiiculties by providing an improved pendant type coin holder in which both insertion and removal of coins can be handled with only one hand.

Another object of the invention is to provide a pendant type coin holder having a decorative lid provided with a. suitable design to make it a part of interior ornament of an automobile.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages will appear from the following description of the preferred embodiment of the present invention that is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which: I

FIG. 1 is a side view of a coin holder according to the present invention, shown in longitudinal section except a spring thereof;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the coin holder of FIG. 1, shown with its decorative lid turned upwards;

FIG. 3 is a rear view of the same;

FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration of-the relation between a coin and a coin guide plate, a portion thereof being broken away.

In FIG. 1, a tubular casing is made of synthetic resins or metal, and each end thereof is flanged as shown by 101 and 102. A coiled spring 12 is placed in the inside space of the casing 10. A pair of coin receiving plates 14 having peripheral edges 141 slidably fitted into the inside surface of the tubular casing 10 are disposed at both ends of the coiled spring 12 so as to be biased towards the ends of the casing respectively.

3,389,710 Patented June 25, 1968 The coin receiving plates 14 can be flat disks. In a preferred embodiment shown in the drawing, there are a plurality of small bosses 142 and 143 formed on the coin receiving plates 14 so as'to project toward the inside of the casing while providing recesses 144 and 145 on the outer surface of each plate 14. With such small bosses, the mechanical strength of the plates 14 is improved, and at the same time end portions of the spring 12 can be held by the projections of the bosses to prevent undesirable playing of the spring in the casing. Moreover, the recesses 144 and 145 act to give additional frictional resistance against movement of coins on the plates 14 to prevent slipping out of the same.

The height H (FIG. 1) of the peripheral edge 141 of the coin receiving plate 14 should be somewhat larger than a distance it between the end surface of the casing and a coin guide plate 16 to be described hereinafter.

The spring 12 is shown as a coiled spring having a uniform diameter in FIG. 1, but it is not restricted to such a coiled spring. For instance, the spring 12 can be formed in a conical shape with the following advantage. When a conical coil spring in the casing is contracted by inserting coins, each loop of the coil spring except the large end loop can be fitted in the adjacent loop having a larger diameter, thereby the space taken by the contracted spring is reduced and the available space for coins can be increased to receive a greater number of coins.

In order to keep coins urged against the coin receiving plate 14 by the elastic force of the spring 12, each of a pair of coin guide plates 16 is secured to each end of the casing 10 with a spacing 11 between the end surface of the casing 10 and the guide plate 16, as illustrated in FIG. 1. The spacing it should be large enough to allow passage of coins therethrough. The guide plates 16 can be made of resins or metals, and one of the two plates can be formed as an integral part of the casing 10 with the same material by a single process.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, an opening 18 having a diameter smaller than that of the smallest coin to be held therein is formed at the central portion of each coin guide plate 16. Each coin guide plate 16 is substantially horseshoe shaped and both side sleeve portions 161, 162 are extended vertically downwards to form an open passageway 20 at the lower end thereof. Just above the lower edges 163 and 164 of the sleeve portions 161 and 162, there are formed bosses 221 and 222 extending inwardly by a small height 2, as best shown in FIG. 4.

A pivot pin 24 having a head thereof embedded in a lid 26, projects through the coin guide plate 16 and is secured to the casing 10. Thus, the lid 26 can be turned around the pivot pin 24, and a suitable design (not shown) can be applied to the lid to make it decorative. In this particular embodiment shown in the drawing, only one lid is provided, but it is permissible to mount a pair of lids to the casing 10 to cover both ends thereof, if so desired.

A link connector 30 is formed as an integral part of the casing 10 to receive a link 28 secured to one end of a string or a chain 32, whose opposite end is connected in turn to a supporting means, such as a key holder.

When the coin holder of the present invention is suspended by means of a string or chain 32 through a suspending means, such as a link 28, the outlet opening of the coin holder is oriented vertically downwards, thereby coins can be removed out of the coin holder by only one hand While coin holder remains suspended from a suitable supporting means, such as a key holder. Thus, a driver can get coins from the coin holder of the present invention without interrupting his steering action.

The possibility of coins slipping out of the coin holder through the vertical downward opening thereof in the case of heavy vibration, such as vibration of an automobile, is eliminated completely according to the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, when a coin C is held by the coin holder, the major part of the coin is positioned above the small bosses 221, 222 or the coin is completely urged into the inside of the casing 10. A coin held above the bosses 221, 222 may be lowered by heavy vibrations until its lower end engages the bosses 221, 222, but due to the fact that the distance between the two ibosses is selected to be smaller than the diameter of the smallest coin to be held by the coin holder, further lowering of the coin is effectively prevented by the above engagement of the coin and the bosses against any conceivable vibration.

Although the invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

For instance, in the illustrated embodiment of the invention, only one spring is used, but it is permissible to use a pair of springs by dividing the inside of the easing into two compartments so as to receive a spring in each compartment.

Furthermore, in this particular embodiment, two Openings are provided in the coin holder to allow coin passage therethrough, but it is apparently possible to form only one such opening and close one end of the casing completely.

What I claim is:

1. A suspendible coin holder comprising a tubular casing having an exterior flange on each end,

a pair of horseshoe shaped coin guide elements, one for each end of said casing and being secured to the flange thereon,

a suspending link on said casing adjacent one end whereby the other end of said casing is oriented downwardly,

a pair of coin receiving plates, one in each end of said casing, each plate having peripheral flanges fitting inside said casing and being slidably disposed therein,

a plurality of bosses on each plate defining projections on one surface and recesses on an opposite surface,

the projections on each plate extending toward the projections on the other plate,

a coil spring mounted in compression between said plates and having end portions disposed between the projections and peripheral flange of the adjacent plate to maintain alignment of the coil spring, said coil spring biasing each plate toward its adjacent coin guide element,

the recesses on each plate being spaced from each other and adapted to enhance frictional resistance against coin movement,

a plurality of spaced boss members on end portions of each guide element whereby a coin inserted between one guide element and an adjacent plate is prevented from removal without first depressing it against the bias of said coil spring, and

a cover member pivotally mounted on said casing adjacent one end to overlie the guide element on such one end.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 481,523 8/1892 Brown 133-6 862,984 8/1907 Marsh 1336 1,021,407 3/1912 Harbough 133-6 2,539,648 1/1951 Wink 133-6 2,879,122 3/1959 Maves 133-6 2,960,259 11/1960 Aventi 133-5 FOREIGN PATENTS 3,558 2/ 1895 Great Britain. 25,337 11/1913 Great Britain.

WALTER SOBIN, Primary Examiner. 

